This turned out very nicely, and had one of the best-tasting hydrometer jars I've had the pleasure of drinking. The rye is present, but not overpowering, and the relatively low IBU lets the malt character come out. The beer is crisp, thanks to the relatively low mash temp. With a FG of 1.010, I'm glad I had the cara-pils in there, or else it may have been too thin.

I wasn't sure how to add the details in Beersmith, but I pre-cooked the rye at 120F for about an hour, as a sort of protein rest in an attempt to get a nice clear beer. We'll see how well it turned out.

Turned out excellent, thanks.
That reminds me, I need to go bottle a six-pack for aging, before the keg gives out.

[added 4-24-08]

..aaaaand that's it for the keg. I never did bottle up that six-pack. Whoops. Guess I'll have to make more. I might re-do it with a bit more rye, to about 25% of the grain bill, and maybe a different yeast like Cali or Ringwood.

I'm brewing this again (There have been several batches made and consumed since the last post) this weekend, but in 11 gallons. In my typical inability to brew exactly the same beer twice, I'm subbing out the cara-pils for melanoiden malt, and I'll mash a bit hotter and shorter (154 vs 150) to get the dextrines the cara-pils would provide.

__________________Reformation Brewery: We went professionalObsessing over: starting a local brewery (hence I am not here much these days!), Pickles, my wife, 3 year old and 6 year old
Reading: fall of giants by ken follett
Building: gardens, recipes, and trailer mounted smoker/ wood pizza oven

This has become my house pale ale -- it's constantly on tap, and I've started brewing larger batches of it, just to make sure I don't run out. I've made somewhere around 30 gallons of it now. The sub of melanoiden for cara-pils turned out to be a pretty good choice.

Last time around, I split a ten gallon batch and fermented half with S-05 and half with Pacman. I felt the Pacman yeast made a better beer, with a touch more malt character to it. I'm currently halfway through my last keg of it, so it's time to brew up another round. This time, I'll be doing a few things differently with my water, which is heavy on sulfates and could use a bit more chloride ion. I don't ever seem to brew it exactly the same way twice, but the grain bill and hops haven't changed in the last few iterations.